Preserving cognitive capability is something I am very interested in. I would like to avoid mental decline or delay it for as long as possible. A number of things have been found to help keep the brain fit, including being engaged in challenging and stimulating activities on a regular basis. That’s how I ended up with a group of fascinating women …
In clearing out my DVR queue recently, I ran across a PBS program that featured psychiatrist Daniel Amen, the author of Change Your Brain, Change Your Life. He was giving a presentation on how to improve memory and decrease the risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Amen described how each of us can affect our brain health in positive ways to …
There are many things we can do to enhance our well-being and improve (or at least maintain) our health as we age. After all, how we age depends primarily on our behaviors, habits, and lifestyle. One important part of our daily lives impacts us in so many ways that it deserves serious consideration. I’m talking about sleep. Our culture celebrates the …
Years ago I had a newsletter that I gave out to audience members. It was printed on glossy 17 X 11 paper that was folded in half to make four pages. There was a main article, a letter to the reader, a shorter piece or quiz or list, and news about upcoming events. I handed it out at speaking engagements and …
I just completed a training course to become certified as a lay leader of an evidence-based Living Well program called the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP). This program was developed by the School of Medicine at Stanford University to provide people living with chronic conditions tools and strategies to improve their quality of life. The Centers for Disease Control conducted a …
There are stereotypes about all kinds of groups: racial stereotypes, gender stereotypes, sexual orientation stereotypes, and more. But when it comes to aging, those stereotypes can affect all of us. Stereotypes in general are largely negative and not based on fact. This leads to misconceptions. In the case of aging stereotypes, they can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies. That’s why they are …
It’s that time of year. Students everywhere getting ready to go back to school. What about you? Whether it’s that degree you always wanted to or some courses you’d really like to take, going back to school over 50 can be very rewarding. In my 50s, I returned to school to get a PhD, and in my 60s I went back …
Vital. Healthy. Engaged. If you are interested in these qualities as much as I am, you need to know that they can be yours. It’s largely a matter of changing your mind and not getting stuck on numbers. Ellen Langer, the Harvard researcher who wrote the book Counterclockwise, has completed numerous studies that show that our attitude, beliefs, expectations, and viewpoint …
Last time, I shared information from a journal article on maintaining brain health for life. It identified 5 areas of your lifestyle that are important to keeping your brain as healthy as possible: physical activity, mental stimulation, spirituality, nutrition, and socialization. This time, I want to focus on mental stimulation as a means to preserve cognitive abilities. With so many brain …
In order to live fully, we need our brain to be healthy. While reports of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease paint a picture of brain decline, there are things we can do to improve our chances of aging well. Science has discovered more about the brain in the past 20 years than in all of history, so catching up on the latest …
